


Untitled

by zecretsantamods



Category: Zero Escape (Video Games)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-10 14:03:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8920003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zecretsantamods/pseuds/zecretsantamods
Summary: Akane was grateful for this timeline.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [juniiper](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=juniiper).



Akane was grateful for this timeline.

There was something strange about it, though. Whose mind had Delta read, to discover that this timeline _could_ have been doomed? Akane had experienced so many timelines for herself, jumped so many times, but she’d never seen it. Never seen the future which fell to the hands of a religious fanatic who wiped out the planet. However, Delta knew it existed; and he could only gather information from the minds of others. Somebody had seen it, somebody that Delta once met. It couldn’t have been Carlos, that was for sure. He had strong abilities, but had no memory of his jumps whatsoever till Akane instructed him on it. Delta couldn’t read something which just wasn’t there at all.

As for Sigma and Phi… The memories that they had were a completely different set. Nothing that those two remembered could be from any time in between the decision game and the third nonary game if it hadn’t happened in the timeline which contained the third nonary game. That was the only progression forward that those versions from the future could have ever experienced; it just wasn’t possible for those alternate timelines to lie within their minds.

Nonetheless, Akane couldn’t allow herself to dwell on the idea, could she? What mattered was that this timeline was different; it was different from all of the others. Every single one. There wasn’t one other timeline out there where Akane got to experience this, where she was alive and happy and not forging on alone, fighting for a better future and committing atrocities, or simply hiding away waiting for the world to end in a timeline where she was the only member of C team to survive. This was the good end. This was the timeline where she could spend Christmas with Junpei.

One million Christmases, and not a single one this wonderful. Of course, Aoi was always great to be around, and he’d made her childhood Christmases a bright spot in an otherwise unsatisfactory life, but there was something to be said about a timeline where she could spend the holiday with her amazing brother _and_ the love of her life. Especially considering the fact it was one of a kind! After so many, many decades of strife (albeit, with their moments) cluttering her memory, it was nice to throw that all to the wayside for once to just enjoy herself.

“Kanny, what’s up?” Junpei questioned, leaning close to her cheek, “You’re sort of spacing out. Everything okay?” On autopilot, he lifted a hand to her forehead, remembering what had happened during the second nonary game. She snapped out of her train of thought to giggle and grab his hand, pulling it away from her head but not letting go of it.

“I’m fine! Actually, I was just thinking about…” She glanced away, cheeks flushed the smallest little bit, “How nice this is, spending Christmas with you.”

“Well,” He chuckled, shrugging, “It’s not really a unique experience… right?”

“It sort of is…” She mumbled, her smile growing a bit, “Believe it or not, Jumpy, this is actually… the only timeline out there, where we can get to do something like this.”

“Wait, seriously?” He questioned, then gave her a scrutinous look, “Wait, doesn’t that mean that… our relationship has no branching paths? Come on, that’s not fair! What if I make a mistake?”

“I guess we’ll just have to deal with it the way normal people do,” Akane shrugged, “Roll with it and work through our problems!” She laughed again, “Doesn’t that sound dreadful? If we did that ever before, well, we’d both be long dead! Anyway, the fact that it isn’t branching is something that I say we should appreciate. It means we won’t be in enough danger to jump!”

“Maybe you won’t be, but if I do make one of those mistakes I mentioned…” Junpei trailed off with a lopsided grin, and Akane pouted for a second before getting on her toes to give him a quick kiss then offer her retribution.

“Danger of being sent to sleep on the _couch_ , maybe…” She scolded with a teasing smirk.

“Yeah, a fate worse than death!” Junpei joked right back.

“Oh really?” She questioned, “What other sort of things are worse than death for you?”

“A huge number of mundane annoyances,” He answered as a matter of fact, “Not at all limited to ‘being denied not only the concept of getting laid, but also innocent spooning’. I’d also consider it worse than death to be able to smell cookies but not eat any, or to be inflicted with a curse that removed my sense of humor.”

“I suppose that last one is a mundane annoyance due to the fact you hardly have a sense of humor in the first place? A more accurate curse would be one that made it so you couldn’t make puns, since that seems to be the only joke you’re capable of to begin with,” Akane chuckled, then wandered over to the kitchen, “Also, I’m going to grab…” She took two oven mitts and put them on her hands, “Both the oven mitts we own…” She opened the oven, “And stand on a chair, holding _these_ cookies over your head and giving you no way to get them!”

“Cruel mistress of my heart…” Junpei groaned as he watched Akane climb onto the chair, but then approached her, “Too bad for you, I know how to get the cookies.”

“My plan is foolproof! You’re just bluffing!” Akane cackled, holding the tray aloft.

“Not so airtight, Kanny my dear,” Junpei chuckled, then stepped up and reached up to her sides, tickling her. She squirmed and laughed at this, and several cookies fell off of the sheet onto the floor before she was able to get a handle on herself- and Junpei stopped, “Tada!”

“That doesn’t give you any cookies, you’re just feeding the floor!” She managed through laughter, “Thwarted again, Jumpy!”

“Not so fast!” He swooped down and picked up the cookies as fast as he could, “Five second rule! …Er, well, ten second rule,” He bit into one, “I’m still gonna eat them. The kitchen floor’s pretty clean.”

“It’s not clean at all, we haven’t mopped in two months!” Akane protested, climbing down from the chair to put the cookies on the kitchen counter, “Though I guess it does look pretty clean… Except for the cookie crumbs.”

“That’s because I mopped it earlier today, while you were at work,” Junpei explained, “I figured with our friends coming over tomorrow we should at least show a little bit of effort, right? You’re busy with work and I’m busy with classes, but if the floor isn’t disgusting then we’ll seem a little bit more like functioning adults who aren’t just barely managing on our own!”

“I don’t think any of our friends would care much…” Akane trailed off, crossing her arms and side-eyeing the wall, oven mitts still on, “I mean, think about it. Every single friend we have… Has seen us brutally murdered in some timeline or another. I think the social misstep of being a corpse far outranks being mild slobs.”

“Well, there is also the benefit of being able to eat these floor cookies without getting salmonella,” Junpei shrugged as he bit into another floor cookie.

“The cookies that I definitely didn’t rub raw chicken on after removing from the oven?” Akane asked.

“Yeah right, there’s not even any raw chicken in the house,” Junpei rolled his eyes, “If there was I would know, I looked in the fridge like twelve times today.”

“And that’s what stands out to you about my joke?” Akane chuckled, then pulled off her oven mitts, ‘Well, I guess you had to shoot me down _somehow_.”

“I wasn’t kidding about looking in the fridge so many times, though. What exactly are we, the hosts, going to _provide_ for this Christmas Potluck?” Junpei questioned, raising his eyebrows.

“Oh, I’ll go shopping in the morning. If I tried to get to the store anytime in the past week, it would just be too crowded,” Akane shrugged, “Don’t worry, I do have a plan. I always do, Jumpy.”

“Plans that hinge on my coming through without ever knowing what I’m supposed to do, usually,” He joked, “Luckily, it’s just Christmas Dinner this time. Not a matter of life and death.”

“This plan doesn’t hinge on you at all! And it’s not true that my plans always hinge on you cluelessly doing exactly what I want you to. Sometimes that burden falls on Sigma Klim,” She chuckled, “But he doesn’t even get the benefit of a lifetime of rewards from me! Not even a single minute. After all, even if you didn’t remember it, you and I _were_ engaged in that timeline… So I probably hold the world record of most faithful wife ever!”

“Not quite. After all, we aren’t married yet!” Junpei joked back, wrapping his arms around her shoulders, “Because _you_ didn’t want a cold wedding.”

“Who would want to get married in November?” Akane questioned, turning to look at him, “Spring is a lovely time. Beautiful, and a great temperature…”

“Though, we did have some of our best early flirtations while locked in a freezer…” Junpei noted.

“Yes, and I also discovered your disembodied head in another freezer, so what’s your point? I don’t want to get married in winter!” She chuckled.

“Okay, I get it. Same reason I don’t want to get married during a heatwave,” Junpei rolled his eyes, “Too reminiscent of one of the many ways we’ve been separated by death.”

“Oh, that reminds me…” Akane pulled away, holding a finger to her chin, “Aoi and I always had this tradition, we’d open one gift on Christmas Eve then the rest on Christmas day. So could I give you one of your gifts early?”

“I don’t get how that reminded you, but I’m not opposed to the idea. I’ll give you one of yours early too,” Junpei nodded, scratching his head as he watched Akane pick up a small box from under the tree, giggling to herself.

“Okay Jumpy,” She got out between laughter, “You’ve been a very naughty boy this year,” She approached him and held out the box, “And I’ll offer you, my body,” She couldn’t keep a straight face as he took the box from her with a confused look. He opened it, then just turned and gave her a deadpan look.

“Coal? Really?” He questioned, stifling laughter himself.

“Oh no, coal is created when organic matter decomposes for a long time. This is a charcoal briquette, which is made when organic matter burns up!” She explained, her laughter turning to a guffaw, “Get it? My body?”

“Akane, this joke is in terrible taste!” Junpei snickered, then burst out laughing as well, “So it shouldn’t be this hilarious!”

“We can laugh about my trauma if I say it’s okay to, and I do!” Akane’s laughter eventually trailed off and she just grinned at Junpei, “I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to use that joke on you since the second nonary game…”

“So a year and a half, but basically an eternity… You sure are one committed comedian,” Junpei’s laughter dissipated as well, and he caught himself just staring at Akane. Staring at… her face. Her smile, the lack of which had made him so bitter, and now they were laughing at something so morbid, and they were together. Living together, going to get married… It was almost too good to be true, but if it was the only timeline where this could happen, then Junpei was by far the luckiest man on Earth after all. As much as a non sequitur as it was, he couldn’t help but voice this, “…God, I love you.”

“I love you too, Jumpy!” She responded, her smile softening as well when she stepped closer to him, “I just…” She took a deep breath, then stepped forward and wrapped him in the tightest hug she could muster, “I’ve waited so long, to be able… To hold you like this anytime. To be close to you… And I’m sorry. Sorry to all of the timelines that I abandoned… you.”

“That’s all in the past now,” Junpei shook his head, then chuckled again, “Well… past, paralell, and future, but none of it’s relevant to us. Here and now. All those other memories are just like… a bad dream,” He shrugged, “Besides, it’s not like the bitter old man version of me ever jumped back here, so all I know about that timeline is what you’ve told me!”

“You were still charming, in your own right,” Akane noted, “But I think that it would be a nice goal for me, to make sure that you didn’t become so grumpy in your old age this time around!”

“That’s quite the task, Kanny,” Junpei answered, planting a soft kiss on her forehead, “I mean, it did only take a year without you to turn me into a nihilist. After weathering the years of life, well, I’m not sure even the best woman ever to grace this planet can keep me from getting at least a little grouchy when I start to get decrepit.”

“Well if _she_ can’t do it, I guess I don’t stand a chance!” Akane teased, looking up at him with a goofy grin, “But, I love you when you’re grouchy anyway. As long as you don’t get as emo as you were right at the beginning of the decision game, that is… If you start talking about the lack of meaning our futile existences hold again, I just might have to disappear without a trace for another decade!”

“Did I really say that? Doesn’t quite sound like me. You sure you’re not the emo one, Kanny?” Junpei joked, then pulled away from the tight hug but didn’t let go of her, “Hey, what was that Shakespeare thing? True love’s a shitty river, but it works out?”

“The course of true love never did run smooth,” Akane gave him the proper statement, “Which I guess could be a river, but you know what it could also be?” She questioned, looking him in the eyes with a small smile, “A branching timeline. One that eventually, always comes back to this. You and I. It’s always been us… hasn’t it? All our lives… I always wanted to be with you, no matter where or when it was, or how disastrous… And I’m sorry I keep bringing this up, but there’s this nagging part of me that worries, that you don’t feel the same.”

“Kanny, I haven’t seen as many timelines as you. I haven’t seen as much death and destruction, and I haven’t waited for you as long as you’ve waited for me, not in the timelines which I can remember, but I…” He trailed off and sighed, “I searched for you. After the second nonary game, all I did was look for you, because I knew that very same thing. This is sappy as all get out, but I get the feeling that we were meant to be.”

“I do too…” Akane nodded with a content sigh, “It just seems too good to be true.”

“Well, we had a one in a million shot, of reaching a timeline like this, but we did it,” Junpei chuckled, then leaned down and picked up one of the other gifts from under the tree and held it out to her, “Here. Open one tonight. I don’t have anything clever like you did, but… Well, it’s the tradition of the thing, right?”

“Aw, thank you!” Akane grinned as she took the item, which was very shoddily wrapped, and squished in her hands. She pulled the paper off to discover that it was a stuffed toy, a rabbit with very soft fabric for fur. Her smile grew even more and her eyes lit up as she ran a hand over it, “You remembered my favorite animal…”

“That gift’s also a promise to you,” Junpei explained, tapping the toy’s head, “Once we’re all sorted out, less busy, really settled in, we’ll get our own rabbit hutch. And I’ll build a really strong fence around it, because even if I still can’t win a fight, that’ll keep them safe from any neighborhood kids who might decide to be dickwads!”

“Well, I don’t think that tends to happen often around here… It’s usually schoolyard rabbits that get targeted by hooligans, right? But…” She giggled, “We should protect them as best as we can anyway. I’d hate for you to get beat up again!”

“Of course,” Junpei nodded, then sighed with a grin, “…Merry Christmas, Kanny.”

“Merry Christmas, Jumpy.”

 

————–

There was one person who remembered the timeline in which the whole world died.

His name was Aoi Kurashiki, and he was one of the only survivors in that timeline, left alone in a destroyed world. He was never as strong an esper as his sister, but there were things which stuck in his mind, from time to time. Timelines where the second nonary game was a failure… but at least in those, there was something he knew for certain. He always knew that it was impermanent, in those timelines. He watched Akane die, over and over, but he always went back and there she was, ready to give it another college try.

This was different. This timeline, Aoi had no guarantee that anything would work out, that he’d escape this world in which he was alone. He kept trying, trying to get back, but it wasn’t working, and even if he did return he had no way of knowing if there would be anything he could change about it. Everyone was gone. Akane was gone. Aoi had never in his life been so absolutely alone.

He hadn’t seen one million Christmases; but he had seen quite a few.

None were quite as horrible as _that_ one.

When Aoi woke up on Christmas day, it wasn’t. Wasn’t Christmas Day, that was. It was two days after Akane left for the Mars simulation. When Aoi went looking for her, he was turned away by a decrepit old man who seemed to stare right through him. All he could do was hope things would be different this time around…

And they were. They were different, and Akane was okay, and he was going to see her and Junpei for Christmas dinner tomorrow. Even so, that memory haunted him. He just couldn’t let go, despite all the joy in the air. One Christmas without her, without a promise of seeing her again. Was that the sort of burden she carried, in timelines where she outlived him?

“Merry Christmas!” She giggled to him, holding Junpei’s hand, “Santa!”


End file.
